LEMOYNE, Pa. — Sunbury Press has released Robert Walton’s novel “Fatal Snow,” about an archaeologist who seeks Incan treasure in the Chilean Andes and is subsequently, unknowlingly, chased to the Grand Tetons in Wyoming.

About the Book:

Robert Walton’s first novel takes us back to 1976. Harry Thursday, an archaeologist, is trying to forget the violent death of his wife. An expedition to find a tomb of an ancient Inca king in the Chilean Andes ends with the discovery of a rich hoard of precious gems and trinkets, and the sudden death of the team’s leader. On the way home, Harry and his wife are robbed of their find, and Harry finds himself alone on a troller bound for Panama after his beloved wife falls overboard during a heavy squall.

1978, Harry is on a camping trip with his best friend Conner in the wild mountains of North-west Wyoming. They come upon a bawdyhouse in the middle of nowhere. CJ, one of the girls, takes to Harry and runs away with them, much to the angst of the pimp Skinny, who goes on a wild killing spree to bring her back.

Separated from Conner during a sudden blizzard, they must fend for themselves in the shadows of the Grand Teton Mountains. Wounded by Skinny, Harry battles an infection and fever and it is up to CJ to find the cabin used by the bordello to entertain customers. While they wait for the storm to end, Harry discovers the secret CJ is holding, and why her pimp wants her back, and then it is only a matter of time before the final standoff between Harry’s destiny and his terrible past.

“Bob Walton’s first novel is a well-written, action-packed thriller, with enough twists and surprises to keep you turning the page. I thoroughly enjoyed it.” — Carmen Finestra (Producer of Home Improvement)

About the Author:
Robert Walton, aka Bob, grew up in Narberth, Pennsylvania. With a degree in Archaeology from Penn State University Bob has worked tirelessly over the years to live up to his father’s expectations. Having failed at that, he has traveled the world in search of the true meaning of life. Still, this has not stopped him from pursuing a career in writing that began in 2007 when he joined Pennwriters and eventually International Thriller Writers.

Bob is the creator and owner of the award winning Bob’s Bagels in central Pennsylvania and when he is not writing, he can be seen drinking coffee and discussing politics in his quaint restaurant.

His next novel extends the story of Harry Thursday in a quest to solve the riddle of the Mask of Minos. He is also working on a science fiction novel that more directly questions the meaning of life.

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — Sunbury Press has released Ray Fashona’s novel “The Death of Obsession,” about a middle-aged man haunted by memories of his nymphomaniacal college girlfriend and who tries to relive his past.

About the Book:
Mike Zinarelli’s life has not turned out the way his college self thought it would. Having once basked in the hazy comfort of pot smoke, cocaine, booze, and sex, sex, sex, Z’s adult life leaves him disillusioned. Once dreaming of making a difference in the world through cutting-edge journalism, Z now watches the decline of the print newspaper and feels the irrelevance of his unused potential. Remembering the virile youthfulness of days past, Z muses on his lifeless, complacent marriage and realizes his age through the one-sidedness of ogling his twenty-something neighbor from a window. In an attempt to revive the spark of life he felt during his college days—debating literature and philosophy, riding the highs of drugs and jazz, having wild sex—Z secretly drinks Jack Daniel’s all day, reaches out to an old college friend, and even sees the woman who once brought him to the brink of a violent, nearly murderous rage: his nymphomaniac college girlfriend, Crystal Cassidy. His clandestine meeting with Crystal, however, puts him at the top of the list of suspects for her mysterious disappearance and assumed death. A quarter of a century after their rollercoaster romance—and the best sex of his life—Crystal Cassidy still has her hooks in Z. Caught between trying to maintain his innocence and living vicariously through his past, Z struggles to survive in the present … and a surprise visit from Crystal’s adult son only complicates his effort. At the risk of losing everything he’s worked for—regardless of how far short it fell from what his college self imagined—Z must fight for his family and break free of his obsession once and for all.

About the Author:

Ray Fashona is a longtime journalist who has written and edited for several newspapers and magazines. This is his first novel.

PALM BEACH, Fla. — Sunbury Press has released John Scanlan’s second novel “Victims of Circumstance.” set in Florida’s Palm Beach County.

About the Book:

For twenty years he knew the man who murdered his wife. He knew he was where he belonged: in a jail cell, never again to see the light of day as a free man. It didn’t help Chris Redgrave move on, but it was enough. Then the new city-slicker State Attorney of Palm Beach County came to pay him a visit. He told Chris of advances in DNA testing. He told him of recanted witness statements and a racist, good ol’ boy culture that mistook an innocent man for a guilty one. And he told him of Julian Anderson’s release from prison.

As his closure unravels and memories of his wife’s brutal death haunt him once again, Chris wages war with himself over if he can accept that his wife’s true killer has lived free for the past two decades. But when the new investigation into his wife’s murder unearths clues that indicate Anderson may be guilty after all, Chris is convinced he had it right all along. Knowing that the politically motivated State Attorney will never admit he made a mistake, Chris is forced to examine just how far he will go to achieve justice.

About the Author:

John Scanlan is a police officer on the picturesque island of Palm Beach in South Eastern Florida. After moving south from the small, western New York village of Le Roy in 2005, he subsequently fell in love with South Florida’s tropical beauty and laid back lifestyle, which is the backdrop for his first novel, Of Guilt and Innocence, and this novel.

A graduate of Brockport College, John’s previous endeavors include training with the United States Border Patrol in Charleston, South Carolina and working as a legal aid for the former Immigration and Naturalization Service in Buffalo, New York. He currently resides in Martin County, Florida with his wife, two daughters, and son.

MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — The Closer, Alan Mindell’s heart-warming baseball novel, ranked #1 due to author activities in California. Mike Campbell’s Amelia Earhart – The Truth At Last moved up on the list, taking #2, thanks to bookstore and library sales.

Sunbury Press posted its worst month in two years in January due to the frigid weather, the owners’ vacation to sunny Puerto Rico and focus on the opening of the Sunbury Press bookstore in Mechanicsburg. Additionally, the company did not release any new titles until very late in the month. Sales were down across the publishing industry due to record cold temperatures keeping patrons from bookstores in the midwest and northeast,

Dennis Herrick’s Winter of the Metal People, about the Tiguex War in New Mexico between the Spanish conqustadors and Pueblo Indians, jumped to #3 on the list, due to sales in the southwestern US.

Judi Markowitz’s The View from Four Foot Two, a medical memoir about her daughter, held strong at #4, thanks to media attention.

Dr. Brandon Musgrave’s medical school memoir, Hour 30, returned to the list at #5, thanks to ebook sales.

The company released five new titles during the month of January:The Roar of Battle by Ted Brusaw, Max’s Clips by Amanda Brown, Star Power by Jim Whelan and Doug Brode, Controversies in Criminology and Criminal Justice by Norbert Ebisike and Lowlife by John Timmerman.

For a list of Sunbury’s all-time best-sellers, please see the Sunbury Press web site:

February is Women in Horror Month. For me, this means I have a great opportunity to learn about other authors as well as promote myself. Sunbury Press has published a few of these women, such as: The Weeping Woman, a ghostly mystery centered on Mexican legend, by Patricia Santos Marcantonio; The Ghosts of Laurelford, a paranormal suspense, by Margaret Meacham; and Seeking Samiel, a supernatural quest where the anti-Christ seeks the devil—Samiel, her lover by, Catherine Jordan.

Then, there are the women characters of horror. Studying them has been a great lesson and who doesn’t love the bad-ass chicks, such as: Alma/Eva in Ghost Story, Annie in Misery, Miriam in The Hunger, Lucy in Dracula, and Rynn in The Little Girl Who Lived Down the Lane. Claudia in Interview with the Vampire, Rebecca and Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca, and last but not least, The Bible’s Jezebel.

Those women are not delicate, sensitive or passive. They are good and bad, sweet and salty, and they will dish out whatever they are backhanded. They have dark feelings and fears that every woman can identify with in some capacity. Like reaching out and taking something, no matter what the violent cost, just because they want it.

Which brings me to my novel titled, Seeking Samiel, where the female antagonist, Eva, is the self proclaimed anti-Christ, the Lamia, seeking out her long lost lover, Samiel. She is based on the Lamia folklore and is half serpent, half female, demon and human. All men, with the exception of one, play a role in her life as surrogate chumps and wind up on her dinner table when she is finished them. Burp.

Women are not supposed to like violence or gore, or be overly aggressive. We are usually the weaker sex, sensitive—the victim. But, what am I to take away from a book that portrays my gender as a victim of circumstances, silly and weak and thereby deserving of the predictable fate on the pages? Eva is no victim. She is a horrible woman. I loved writing about her and fleshing out her nature. As a horror writer, I don’t know how successful I am at scaring, but my favorite female authors and female characters have influenced my writing, for the better, I hope.